Indianz.Com > News > Montana Free Press: Fort Belknap Tribes sue to protect water and land

Fort Belknap Tribes: DEQ failed to consult with tribes on Zortman site proposal
A new lawsuit says the agency hasn’t taken a ‘hard look’ at a proposal by Bozeman-based Blue Arc to remove 1,000 tons of rock from the former gold mine.
Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Montana Free Press
A lawsuit filed in Phillips County District Court last week argues that the Montana Department of Environmental Quality failed to consult with tribes and fully evaluate environmental impacts in its handling of a proposal to remove 1,000 tons of rock from the site of a former gold mine in Zortman.
The Fort Belknap Indian Community, Earthworks and the Montana Environmental Information Center are suing DEQ and Blue Arc, LLC, a Bozeman-based company that has applied for a license to evaluate rock samples collected from the Zortman gold mine in north-central Montana.
If the exploration license is granted, Blue Arc would use an excavator with a hydraulic hammer to remove material from an exposed rock face in an area that was mined for gold and silver by Pegasus Gold in the 1980s and 1990s. Blue Arc would build 2,400 feet of road to access the excavation site, which would cover about 1.4 acres. The collected rock would then be shipped to a facility in Nevada for testing.

Billings native Amanda Eggert covers environmental issues for MTFP. Amanda is a graduate of the University of Montana School of Journalism who has written for Outside magazine and Outlaw Partners. At Outlaw Partners she led coverage for the biweekly newspaper Explore Big Sky. Contact Amanda at aeggert@montanafreepress.org.
Note: This story originally appeared on Montana Free Press. It is published under a Creative Commons license.
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